Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Eagles Headed Down South

Posted February 5th, 2024 | 2 Comments »

The Eagles are going to play a game down south in 2024. Way down south. I mean, even past Delaware.

https://twitter.com/Eagles/status/1754647491213951227

Pretty, pretty cool.

The NFL is seeking to expand its popularity and become more of an international sport. I guess dominating every square inch of America 24/7/365 just isn’t enough. The NFL has developed a strong following in the UK, Germany and other parts of Europe.

Now the goal is to play a game in South America, Spain and Australia. Well, check off South America.

The game will be played on Friday on opening weekend. That means I’ll have seen the Eagles play on every day except for Wednesday. And I kind of hope it stays that way. Because this is opening weekend, the Eagles will have time to travel to and from Brazil without it affecting them too much.

The Eagles will be the home team. We don’t know the opponent yet.

Any of those teams would be cool.

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The Eagles continue to fill out their defensive staff.

Another coach who has worked for Vic Fangio in the past.

Parker is relatively young and has five years of NFL experience. He’s coached DBs in Denver under three different head coaches and DCs. You rarely see an assistant last through that many coaching changes. That tells you that the various coaches were impressed by Parker.

https://twitter.com/eaglesdiehard/status/1754661257666613559

I can’t stress enough the importance of the Eagles coaches having connections.

DC Vic Fangio – created the Fangio system
DL Clint Hurtt – 2 years in the Fangio system
LB ?
SAF Joe Kasper – 1 year in the Fangio system
DB Christian Parker – 1 year in the Fangio system

These are coaches who have connections to Fangio and understand his defensive system. That will make it easier for them to identify and solve schematic problems. The ability to teach the system is crucial. Think about all the guys who used to work for Bill Belichick. They were exposed to brilliant schematic ideas. Almost none of the coaches had success as head coaches or even defensive coordinators. Knowing the X’s and O’s is one thing. Understanding how to teach it is very different.

Nick Sirianni and Fangio are putting together a staff that has familiarity with the same scheme so the coaches can do a good job of teaching their players how to perform at a high level and make the scheme work.

This is worlds different than last year and should help the defense to perform at a much higher level.

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Moore is now official.

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I like what the Eagles are doing. They’re looking for the right guys, not the biggest names. If you go back to 1999, Andy Reid didn’t load up on star coaches. He hired smart, hungry guys. Over time they developed into stars like Jim Johnson, Ron Rivera, Leslie Frazier, Steve Spagnuolo, Sean McDermott and John Harbaugh. At the time, they were just anonymous assistant coaches.

The young, hungry staff that Sirianni put together originally worked really well. Their replacements, not so much.

I like this group so far. Fingers crossed that Sirianni found the right guys.

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More Coaches

Posted February 3rd, 2024 | 3 Comments »

The Eagles are continuing to fill out their coaching staff. Instead of finding Nick Sirianni connections, they are leaning on their coordinators for these roles.

Nussmeier was the QB coach for Moore in both Dallas and Los Angeles. Nussmeier did a good job of getting Dak Prescott to play at a high level. He knows how to work with Moore and run that offensive system. Nussmeier also has ties to Jeff Stoutland.

Stoutland and Nussmeier were at Michigan State together from 2003-2005. This familiarilty is a good thing. You need coaches to be able to get on the same page. This is true in terms of scheme, but also in terms of working together. Running an offense is a collaboration. Coaches must be able to come up with a gameplan that serves the offense the best and not specific agendas.

Stoutland is the run game coordinator. Moore and Nussmeier will have a major hand in running the passing game. Those elements must complement each other, especially in the age of RPOs. Nussmeier’s experience with both of them should help the group to work well together.

As for the defensive side of the ball…

We thought Karl Scott was coming to Philly, but he stayed in Seattle. Kasper has experience with both Fangio and the Eagles. He was a Quality Control Coach for the Birds in 2021-2022. He then went to Miami to coach safeties under Fangio.

Fangio now has Clint Hurtt to run the DL and Kasper to coach the safeties. Both guys know his system. They can help mesh the front and back of the defense. As we’ve talked about, there was way too much confusion last year. The units didn’t work well together. That shouldn’t be the case this year. Fangio is an experienced DC who knows his scheme inside-out. He’s got coaches that know his system and how he likes to coach.

The defense should be much more organized unit this season.

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No surprise here.

Good luck to McDonald.

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Olivia Reiner wrote a good story on Fangio after talking to DB Justin Simmons, who played for Fangio in Denver.

“I owe a lot of my success to Vic and his staff, because just the way they implemented their defense and made me learn the game in a whole new perspective,” the 30-year-old Simmons said before Friday’s practice at his second-career Pro Bowl appearance. “It was a whole new defense, it was a whole new way of learning. So Philadelphia’s got a great one.”

You like to hear stuff like that from former players.

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More Senior Bowl Talk

The Eagles had various personnel in Mobile, but I never saw any coaches.

The Senior Bowl game and practices are now at Whitney-Hancock Stadium, a modern facility. The old stadium (Ladd-Peebles) had one entrance for everyone. Coaches, scouts and media walked in together. Coaches and scouts would sit on both sides of the stadium, depending on their preference. In the new stadium, the NFL folks are on the pressbox side. Those of us in the media are on the other side. There is no mingling during practices. That makes it tough to see who is there and who/what they are watching.

The new stadium is great, but it has taken away a lot from the Senior Bowl experience. In the old stadium, Andy Reid sat 12-feet away from me. Now I can’t get within 100 yards of him.

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The people running the Senior Bowl now have it set up so that every team meets with every prospect. That has taken away some of the fun of the reports about the Eagles interviewing this QB or that LB. Every team interviews everyone.

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I asked multiple people their thoughts on Fletcher Cox. Everyone agreed that he had a strong season and it would make sense to bring him back. I think money will be key, but he’s still a good DL and he is a good fit for Fangio’s scheme.

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The discussions on James Bradberry were a lot less fun. No one could think of a player who fell so far in one season. Bradberry went from a top CB in 2022 to an absolute disaster in 2023. We all expected some type of drop off, but not that. It was shocking.

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One of the best things about the trip to Mobile is the barbecue. The best spot in town is called Meat Boss. If you make it to Mobile for any reason, I would encourage you to go there. Great barbecue. I had pulled pork. I think Jimmy ate pulled chicken. And the potato salad is outstanding.

I also ate at Dreamland. It is more well known, but isn’t anywhere close to as good.

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